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Linux 3.13 Kernel To Bring Major Feature Improvements

An anonymous reader writes "There's many improvements due in the Linux 3.13 kernel that just entered development. On the matter of new hardware support, there's open-source driver support for Intel Broadwell and AMD Radeon R9 290 'Hawaii' graphics. NFTables will eventually replace IPTables; the multi-queue block layer is supposed to make disk access much faster on Linux; HDMI audio has improved; Stereo/3D HDMI support is found for Intel hardware; file-system improvements are on the way, along with support for limiting the power consumption of individual PC components."

22 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. So many improvements by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Funny

    So many improvements! Which proves that right now Linux must really suck. It's a good thing then, that Windows, FreeBSD, AIX, Solaris, etc etc can be counted on to suck far worse.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:So many improvements by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Mehhh. I used to update my kernel as quickly as possible when they promised major improvements. It always turns out that a "major improvement" is actually an "incremental improvement". I lost the excitement over kernel upgrades some time ago. I still upgrade from time to time, but my attention is more focused on security than any supposed "improvements". I don't want to be the odd guy who is caught with some vulnerability that was fixed eight versions ago. Two versions, maybe - but eight? Nope, no way! That would be just to embarrassing.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    2. Re:So many improvements by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      when I used normal video hardware, I could upgrade kernels all I wanted.

      with stupid fucking nvidia (binary blobs) I am stuck at their mercy. 3.11 was a hard one for nvidia (nothing worked out of the box and needed work-arounds) and of course NV was slow as hell to do their own update.

      its a laptop so I can't swap out the video card. I hate nvidia and their closed source driver. nouveau is not working for me as I need multiple displays (external dvi pairs) and so I'm stuck with the nv binary driver.

      when that is 'ready', THEN I'll be able to run the matching kernel for it.

      sigh...

      (I had a nice shiny new 802.11ac intel card I wanted to use, but it needed 3.11 to run and my nv card would not run with 3.11).

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:So many improvements by TCM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sounds awesome - and you're not even running any applications yet. Some people just don't have that amount of time to piss away, though.

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
    4. Re:So many improvements by swillden · · Score: 5, Funny

      Slashdot may, at first glance, appear to be the intelligent and knowledgeable 0.01%, but it is really the idiotic 99.999999999999%

      So, you're saying slashdot is everyone?

      (You'd need 10^14 people -- more than 100,000 times the population of the planet -- in order for the 0.000000000001% to equal one person.)

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    5. Re:So many improvements by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Unfortunately it won't any time soon. The reason? MS Office, and its billions of unmaintainable macros that keep most companies from being able to switch to something else. Sad, but true.

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    6. Re:So many improvements by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 2

      That's just for binary crap drivers. Most people don't need them, and just use the open source ones. 0 time spent dealing with them with any upgrade.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  2. Intel support is stellar this time. by deviated_prevert · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Considering that the 14NM Broadwell chips are not scheduled to ship till the second quarter of 2014. With support for power saving per component coming along it looks like using the Linux kernel on laptops will also be much more inviting. It is all well and good that the advances in the kernel hardware support are keeping pace with what Microsoft is doing. I am still eagerly awaiting a great high end powerhouse Linux laptop. As it is the old IBM T42 non-pae clunker that I am writing this on is still very usable but if a company ever finally does ship an OS agnostic laptop with high specs I will jump at the chance.

    The temperatures in hell are dropping but I am not going to hold my breath as Windows still holds the retailers and manufacturers by the balls to say the least. However with both Intel and AMD actively supporting the Linux kernel this quickly for their most important product lines perhaps a manufacturer like Samsung or Lenovo might actually try to market a real full blown Linux based device for a change instead of just dabbling in Android consumer craptronic devices.

    --
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  3. Security fix backports by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I still upgrade from time to time, but my attention is more focused on security than any supposed "improvements". I don't want to be the odd guy who is caught with some vulnerability that was fixed eight versions ago.

    Some Linux distributors, instead of providing a new kernel that may break old applications or devices, instead backport security fixes to an old kernel.

    1. Re:Security fix backports by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I still upgrade from time to time, but my attention is more focused on security than any supposed "improvements". I don't want to be the odd guy who is caught with some vulnerability that was fixed eight versions ago.

      Some Linux distributors, instead of providing a new kernel that may break old applications or devices, instead backport security fixes to an old kernel.

      The Ubuntu LTS+HWE model is interesting; you can basically install the kernel from Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04, or 13.10 on your 12.04 LTS system.

  4. Right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is just a cash grab by the Linux developers.

  5. Re:Nice by Mitchell314 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What the next generation actually needs, is to learn to question authority

    Apparently somebody's never met a teenager before. :P

    --
    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
  6. Re:Nice by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    I'm not sure what's going on in the school district you're in, but I've been in some Chicago Public Schools recently and they're teaching the kids a lot more than just "Microsoft Office".

    I brought home one of the puzzles that some of the kids made on a 3D printer using some CAD program. It had nothing to do with Office. There were Linux machines scattered around the room and lots of the kids had iPhones or Android phones (not part of school, but don't think they're not learning how to work those platforms, make apps, etc). Now this happened to be a "selective enrollment" school (where you have to test in) but I don't think they're going all that far afield from what's happening in other schools.

    I was pretty surprised at how well they seemed to be doing in terms of avoiding the obvious. Now, you'll still see Office in some of the career prep courses, but not anything like what I saw in schools' computer labs back in the early 2000s.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  7. Re:Nice by cykros · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Teenagers don't question authority, by and large. They yell, throw tantrums, stomp their feet, and make a lot of noise, and then once that angst is out of their system, they promptly tend to get to doing whatever it is that the authorities have told them they should do to "get ahead".

    In any case, it's not about authority here...the real issue is that to most teenagers, or most people in general, a computer is merely an entertainment device, rather than a powerful tool that can be tailored to one's own needs. It doesn't matter how easy the latest user-friendly scripting language gets, "programming" remains something they envision as involving binary and machine code, purely there for autistic folks and aliens.

    What we really need is to integrate programming of SOME kind into the general curriculum of our schoolchildren. And for Christ's sake, leave enough holes open on the local school network for kids to have fun learning to poke holes in the restrictive environment you've set them up in. The classes teach them HOW to do things, and the rebelliousness of getting around the restrictions gets them interested in doing them (and then the combination of heavy handed laws and bug bounty programs bring them back into societal correctness once they enter adulthood...hopefully).

    The absolute LAST thing kids need is a user friendly interface. Save those for grandma, give the kid a raspberry pi, a book on Python, and then put them up behind a firewall that blocks most anything their friends will be wasting their time with. Not because you want to keep the kid OFF of such sites, but to make them at least learn a thing or two from time to time in their attempts to waste time in an otherwise purely wasteful manner.

  8. Re:i'm watching a stream of some fag play Knack... by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The PS4 is just a low-end gaming PC with a Sony sticker on the front. Of course the games are going to look like something a PC could play a few years ago.

  9. bcache is a HUGE improvement for some workloads by raymorris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bcache, merged in 3.11, improves IO up to 100X. Not 100%, 100X, or 10,000%. It may well be worth an upgrade if you're running a distro 2.3x and have random IO on multi TB storage.

    1. Re:bcache is a HUGE improvement for some workloads by __1200333 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Perhaps someday dm-cache will make it into mainline.

      dm-cache is in mainline since 3.9. Now please test it and let me know if I should bother trying it!

      https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/device-mapper/cache.txt
      http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c6b4fcbad044e6fffcc75bba160e720eb8d67d17

  10. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Nah just need to remove the absurd penalty involved if you get caught hacking the school network, at least as long as you don't use your exploits for any sort of personal gain. I had a lot of fun playing with the school network. Despite never once taking advantage to having full reign over the system I was thrown out of school for a year when I got caught. The effect it had on my life after school was enough to turn me away from hacking. In the 10 years since that was added to my record I have had a total of three jobs, I gave up even trying to find a normal job because I'm sick and tired of explaining it and getting turned away because of it.

    What really added insult to injury was that the kids that picked fights on a regular bases almost always got detention for that, a couple got kicked out for a week, but none of them kicked out for a whole school year. It pisses me off so much that I'm shaking in anger just thinking about it.

  11. Re: SteamOS Will 'Really Help' Linux On the Deskto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If your programmers cannot figure out which libraries to use and/or link everything statically, might I suggest that instead if crying fragmentation they look for a different profession.

  12. BTRFS stable when by Eravnrekaree · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When is BTRFS finally going to be declared stable and become default on major distros? Its features were needed years ago. The Copy on Write features are killer features that have been needed on Linux for years, such as to implement a filesystem level versioning, system restore an restore point feature and improved snapshot features. Ext4 is only a stop-gap and Ext is really starting to show its age.

    1. Re:BTRFS stable when by fnj · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ZoL all the way. I know longer care if the BTRFS glacier _ever_ arrives.

      I was hesitant, thinking ZoL was toy status, but I bit the bullet, installed and took the learning curve. It seems fully mature to me. I had confused ZoL with the ZFS Fuse toy, but ithey are completely separate things. ZoL is a high performance, reliable and mature "real" kernel mode file system.

      Creating an 18TB double parity RAID-Z2 storage pool takes only a handful of seconds and is completely ready to go. There is no traditional long "build" stage. In general all "mkfs" operations are essentially instantaneous.

      For me on CentOS6 it was a simple repo addition and "yum install". It hooks into DKMS for when I do future kernel upgrades.

  13. Re:Nice by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 2

    Nobody wants to hire a kid who thinks he can hack and then gets caught. It shows you can't be trusted at any job where you might need to touch a computer, phone or money. Worse still, it shows you lack skills.

    People want to hire the guys who performed the hacks and got away with it, not the ones who overestimated themselves and failed.

    --
    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.